Apple’s new Game Center page lists the iOS devices that will let you get involved in this whole playing games withother people thing that’s happening soon. Second-generation iPod Touch owners: you’re in luck! iPhone 3G owners: you’re not!

Game Center, which will be arriving with the imminent iOS 4.1 update, will allow users to join up with friends to do battle in epic cathedrals and elsewhere—unless, of course, you’re still riding around on an iPhone 3G, in which case you’re stuck flinging Angry Birds by yourself.

The second-gen iPod Touch has a slightly beefier processor, which could have something to do with it, but at this point Apple’s stance is painfully clear: iPhone 3G is old and busted.

Although Steve Jobs said it was rude to post ‘intimate’ emails with customers, this one could use some spreading. For those who are stuck with an iPhone 3G running iOS, there is some good news:

The new email came in response to feedback sent by a customer who expressed frustration over the performance of his iPhone 3G, calling it "dog slow" and pointing to problems with system responsiveness when scrolling, zooming, and typing.

I’ve waited patiently through 4.0.1 and 4.0.2, looking for a fix that will make my phone work again. I’ve read the forums that advise me to jailbreak my phone or use some other method so I can downgrade back to a version of iPhone 3, however I’m not prepared to use a method that is not supported by Apple.

Jobs’ response was unsurprisingly terse:

Software update coming soon.

Sent from my iPhone

iOS 4.1 Betas on iPhone 3G devices have shown steady speed improvements, though there are limitations with older hardware. Apple was selling the iPhone 3G up until a few months ago ($99 option) so getting a fix in place is important.

Step 3

You’ll be instructed to put your iPhone into DFU Mode to install jailbreak.

When your iPhone3G comes back up, you’ll notice Cydia has a blank white icon (we told you many things were broken right now!) Allow Cydia to reorganize, then accept the update it offers. When Cydia restarts, you should see its real logo now.

18diggsdiggWhile iOS 4 is delivering on every promise for the iPhone 3GS users out there, as we were all told up front, the iPhone 3G would be missing some of those touted new features. Granted, we knew such disparities would exist but were never given the finer details. Now that the final build is percolating through the internet, we decided to take a look at what features are and aren’t working on the earlier year’s model.What’s there

Folders

Threaded mail

iTunes playlist creation / editing

5x digital zoom: just tap on the display near the capture button, but be warned, it doesn’t paint a pretty picture

Game Center: the icon is present, but as of this writing we’re unable to connect to the servers. (Update: a number of readers saying it didn’t come with today’s download. We nabbed ours as a gold build, which might explain the discrepancy despite still being considered “up to date” by iTunes.)

Spell check has been updated

Spotlight search: you can search the web and Wikipedia from the home screen search bar. That said, not all our queries — “Engadget,” for example — weren’t offering the option. [Thanks, jkane08]

What isn’t

Multitasking: this is the big one. Double-tapping the home button doesn’t give you the handy menu, there’s no fast app switching, and background use is missing in action.

Screen lock: normally in the multitasking menu (which isn’t available on 3G), it’s nowhere to be found, even under Settings. Bummer.

Home screen wallpaper: you’d think this simple addition would make the cut, but sadly no. The dock has been given a visual upgrade, though.

Bluetooth Keyboard support: we haven’t tried this ourselves, but an influx of reports from Twitter suggest this is also a no-go.